Monday, 29 July 2019

Some Telling Details

The Forge, CHAPTER SEVEN, pp. 98-99.

The colonized planet, Bellevue, has two moons so what are they called? Miniluna and Maxiluna.

Do they cast moonlight? No, "moonslight." (p. 98)

A soldier scouting possible bandits at night carries "...a wire cord with wooden toggles on both ends..." (ibid.) So what is it? A "...garrotte..." (p. 99)

Soldiers who have been brought up as hunters make little noise when stalking at night. Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry has reflected that hunting skills are transferable to resistance fighting. See here.

Raj Whitehall, leading this night-time excursion, smells barley, hears gurgling water and sees pale silver light flickering through leaves.

We should pause to appreciate these telling details in SM Stirling's narrative before we read on to learn the outcome.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Now that is a new word that I don't think I noticed in my previous readings of THE FORGE: "Moonslight." I must have glided over it simply calling it "moonlight."

Yes, I can tell Stirling learned from Anderson!

Sean